bunny is getting lazy and fat….

[sarasaphantasia]

little coraline is getting lazy and fat….. i let her out to play for as long as she wants but she chooses to only play for like an hour maybe then she goes into her cage again…. how do i keep her playing and exercising? its not a diet problem btw she doesnt get too many pellets she gets all her greens and veggies and she eats plenty of hey…..shes just going all lazy on me lol. she loves to play though she binkies and races all over my room but not nearly as long as she used to. she doesnt seem stressed or depressed. she doesnt seem to be showing any signs of being upset about something. i dont get it. is she simply going lazy?

[Sarita]

What makes you think she is getting fat?

Her behavior sounds very typical to me – short spurts of energy, long periods of loafing. Maybe you could try some different toys to interest her.

[sarasaphantasia]

well because she is physically getting more fat lol ^^. but i will try some new toys and so on for her to play with keep her busy longer.

[Elrohwen]

How much pellets does she get in a day? You may still be able to reduce them if she’s gaining weight.

Honestly, her activity sounds totally normal and not lazy at all. I consider Hannah to be a very active rabbit, and even she spends at least 90% of the day just laying around. And even her active times and generally chewing on a box or something – not necessarily running and jumping (though there is some running and jumping, but not nearly an hour straight every day).

[sarasaphantasia]

well she used to play actively for at least 3 hours( i thought she ran on batteries for a while there). maybe she is just bored now. as for pellets she only gets i think its 1/4 of a cup. i think she is just bored now, perhaps i will try something to entertain her a bit more i guess. any ideas?

[Sarita]

How old is she? She could just be filling out into her adult frame.

[jerseygirl]

Adult rabbits can settle down and be less active then the teenage or baby ones.  If she’s truly bored she might actually be into things more, be more destructive. If she’s dozing then she’s probably content.  When they’re laying around super relaxed they can look fat sometime, melting into a bunny puddle. Is she developing a dewlap or anything? 

 It’s still good to switch things up though and get them moving and interested. Have you looked at the toy section? I’ve seen a lot of members doing training with their rabbits now too. Like clicker training, teaching them tricks etc.

[Elrohwen]

I agree with Jersey re: a bored bunny is often a destructive bunny. Especially if the bunny was already a hyperactive one. Hannah is active, and when she’s bored, she doesn’t loaf – she gets into things. So think loafing = contentment.

Adult bunnies also settle down a lot as they age, so you could just be seeing a natural calming as she gets older.

[sarasaphantasia]

shes only like 2 years maybe. i havent seen her be destructive. perhaps she is just filling out she was smaller before we moved. i dont have money really to buy toys are there any i can make myself out of safe stuff?

[Elrohwen]

Two years is a pretty common time to settle down, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the reason she was a bit more calm.

Have you thought of teaching her to do some tricks? If you search there are a lot of threads on clicker training and I find it a great way to bond with my bunnies and keep them moving.

Cardboard boxes are also a great free way to give them something to do. Mine love cardboard and phonebooks and those are pretty much the only toys they get. I’ve also bought a couple food dispensing balls (about $1.50) from the petstore, originally for cats. They push them all over the house trying to get treats out.

[sarasaphantasia]

clicker training a bunny hmm……sounds like it would be frustrating lol…i havent even taught her to go int eh litterbox yet, though she does know to go home when i say.

[Michelle&Lolli]

Eddie is 3 and Lolli is 2 and both are not as active as they once were. They do have their moments, but they are short lived. lol So it’s normal for them to become less and less active as they grow older.

[Deleted User]

Adult rabbits are not as curious and hyper as kits but they do stay active well into their older years if healthy. I would adjust pellet intake if you find your rabbit is putting on excess weight. My rabbits don’t exercise at all during the day, it is in the early evenings that they start to get moving. You could build her a pen with shelves or other obstacles and increase her confined space so she can move at her choosing.

I came across this bunny playland recently. It is on the Leith petwerks website. I think it is so cool!

[Monkeybun]

Posted By sarasaphantasia on 08/20/2010 03:05 PM
clicker training a bunny hmm……sounds like it would be frustrating lol…i havent even taught her to go int eh litterbox yet, though she does know to go home when i say.

 

You should get her litter trained soon, before she gets set in her ways of being free running around. Limit her space, and just fill the area with litter boxes. Worked for Smudge. All she had to hop on was litter boxes, and she hasn’t had a single accident since. Don’t let her run around free until she learns.

[Deleted User]

I think you could fashion a bunny playground out of sturdy cardboard boxes that you can get for free.
What is your current litterbox setup?

[Michelle&Lolli]

My rabbits’ favorite “toy” is a blue ray player box i cut the flaps off, cut two holes on either end and flipped it over. They LOVE it. Love climbing on it, love chewing on it, love sleeping in it. It was amazing cause they usually don’t like any “toys” I make for them. lol

Also wanted to add that mine seem to be the most active at like 11pm at night for some reason. Or in the middle of the night. I’ve been home on medical leave so my sleep schedule is messed up. I’ve been staying up until like 3, 4am and they’ve been free range. But they’ve raced around and done binkies a few times at like 1am. lol So I think it just depends on the rabbit. If we weren’t all up until all hours of the night, I think they would go back to being the most active between 8pm-10pm like they were before.

[sarasaphantasia]

we just moved so i have plenty of boxes for her. i will try that litter box idea but i dont have a pen that will hold her really, what if i just put them all over my room? i dont think it will be too hard for her to figure it out shes a smart bunny. sometimes i let her out at different times maybe thats why she wasnt as active.

[kralspace]

I think she may just be maturing and settling down. Mine are all 4+ and I had gotten used to the relative calm until young Charlie came along a couple of months ago. At 6 months he’s a whirlwind, running, jumping and just being an idiot (I say that fondly) the entire time he’s out.

As much fun as he is to watch, I’m looking forward to his quieting…lol

Check out BinkyBunnies toy section, lots of ideas for toys you can make from household items. Some buns are partial to exploring homemade tunnels and boxes, some have to have a job like shredding phone books or balsa toys, mine love the little paper sack with their pellets in it to keep them occupied.

[Deleted User]

I would work on the littertraining first like Monkeybun suggested before letting her have the space of an entire room.

[BinkyBunny]

As bunnies age, it is normal for them to be more “loungers”, but even my senior bunnies come out to the living room every night to see what new tunnels and playhouse arrangements we have set up for them. They will explore and then hang, then explore and hang.

I used to put my bunnies’ greens all throughout a chicken wire fence thing so they would have to stretch up and pull greens off the fence. Jack has arthritis in his spine now, so it wouldn’t be nice for me to do that anymore, but if he didn’t have that I would most likely continue to do that every once in awhile just for some mental stimulation.

You can also hide her favorite treats corners or some other non-obvious places which may encourage her to explore more

[sarasaphantasia]

i made a little play house out of a box and put treats in it .. but she doesn’t seem to care very much. there ferrets liked it more then she did. but she is nibbling on it. maybe she just isn’t used to it yet.. btw i don’t have a pen so i cant reduce her space to litter train her. its either cage or room. but my room isn’t very large so i don’t see a problem. and until i rabbit proof the other part of the house shes gunna stay in here anyway.

[Click & Treat Bunny]

Just want to add that you can clicker train her to use the litter box. I did that with Clover. It took a about 2-3 weeks for total reliability. Now, she is super at it. Even in the mornings, I let her out of her house and tell her to “go potty,” and she runs to her litter box outside her house. She has one inside her house as well that she uses during the day. The best thing is to really reward her for pottying in her litter box. I used really valuable treats. Something to possibly think about.

[sarasaphantasia]

yea i found my old clicker for when i trained the cats. so i am seriously considering the clicker training. is there a guide somewhere i can look at to start this process?

[Deleted User]

The BB store sells a clicker training book you might like.

[sarasaphantasia]

is there a guide somewhere i dont have to spend money? i dont have alot to simply throw around at things like that right now. things will be a little tight for a while until the payments on things even out more. shouldnt be long now though a few more months maybe even early next year.

[Otti]

You should just google rabbit clicker training. I’m sure there’s lots of stuff online.

[sarasaphantasia]

yea i’ll do that. thanks

[sarasaphantasia]

the bunny in your picture there is sooo adorable^^

[Otti]

Do you mean my bunny? yeah he’s adorable and he knows it! LOL I just changed the pic cause I had one up from just under 2 months ago, and he’s twice as big now…

the homeless guy who I bought/adopted him from who was carrying him on the street said he was a dwarf… but I think not lol

[sarasaphantasia]

oh wow a homeless man had him? O.o my goodness glad you got him. yea coraline thinks shes all that too lol >< silly bunnys

[Otti]

Yeah, he stopped me on the street one night on my way to bevmo (I was going to a wine tasting after). He was just holding Sammy in his hand, and Sammy was tiny back then. He said that he was going to San Diego and couldn’t take the bunny (?) and that he’d had him for a while and fed him grass from the street (!). I just couldn’t leave him to live outside and took it as a sign. I’m going to introduce him properly sometime this week in the new bunny section… just haven’t had time so far

Coraline is super pretty! I read somewhere that her breed is very smart… so she should take to the clicker training easily I’m sure

[sarasaphantasia]

yea i know shes very smart.. she never lets me forget it lol

[Elrohwen]

Check out clickerbunny.com for a free guide to clicker training. It’s very useful.

[sarasaphantasia]

thanks.

[Michelle&Lolli]

This is totally off topic but every time I read this title, I think of the Beauty and the Beast song Be Our Guest. There’s a line in it that goes….”flabby, fat and lazy, you walked in and oopsie daisy…..” LOL Yeah I have no clue why and I’m a dork. lol

[sarasaphantasia]

lol ><

[Author]

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